Sublime Hamilton breaks Schumacher's pole record in unrelenting Monza rain; Stroll becomes youngest front-row starter; Ferrari endure home nightmare and title leader Vettel to start sixth
Saturday 30 September 2017 09:12, UK
Lewis Hamilton has become the most successful qualifier in F1 history after breaking Michael Schumacher's pole position record in a frenetic rain-hit Italian GP qualifying session.
Hamilton will take the lead of the World Championship for the first time this season with victory on Sunday.
His 69th career pole surpasses Michael Schumacher's career total of 68, a record which stood for 11 years. The Englishman's final lap in Q3 was a mighty 1.1 seconds faster than second-fastest Max Verstappen's.
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel will start only sixth for Ferrari's home race after an unpredictable conclusion to qualifying at a rain-lashed Monza resulted in Williams teenager Lance Stroll claiming the second front-row berth.
How will the top 10 line up at Monza?
Red Bull pair Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo outpaced Stroll in Q3 but will drop to the back rows of the field after multiple engine penalties. Force India's Esteban Ocon also starred and will start from a career-best third.
Ferrari, desperate to claim their first home win in seven years, struggled badly in worsening conditions in Q3 and Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel set only the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively.
Red Bull's penalties promote them two places apiece, but the result still represents a major setback to the Scuderia's championship aspirations.
Valtteri Bottas was only sixth on the timesheet, and two seconds slower than Hamilton, but will start fourth in the second Mercedes.
When does Sunday's Italian GP start?
Hamilton achieved the landmark on a day F1's oldest and fastest venue was battered by persistent poor weather.
Qualifying had started on time but, with the conditions worsening from almost the moment cars took to the circuit, the red flag was thrown within five minutes of Q1 when Haas' Romain Grosjean aquaplaned on the pit straight and crashed into the barriers.
Q1 was then repeatedly suspended over the next two hours and 40 minutes as the rain persisted, with the newly-resurfaced track surface not draining particularly well when there was a brief easing of the rain.
The session restarted at 3.40pm local time and then ran to its conclusion, despite the weather worsening again for the pole-deciding runs of Q3.
Hamilton sublime, as F1's new generation also star
While wet conditions are often regarded as a 'leveller', Hamilton maintained the superiority Mercedes had shown in the dry on Friday with a superlative qualifying performance.
As Vettel toiled on full wets in Q3, Hamilton withstood the challenge from the penalised Red Bulls and ensured his record pole position would not be inherited by lapping a full second faster than anyone on his final lap.
"To do this [the record] here at such a historic circuit, I'm going to have some pasta tonight to celebrate," said a jubilant Hamilton. "I came across the line and I didn't know if I had it but it felt a good lap.
"69, I can't believe it."
Scarcely believable was the performance of 18-year-old Lance Stroll. Williams have struggled repeatedly in wet conditions over recent years but Stroll was a feature in the top 10 throughout the elongated qualifying session.
The Canadian, who claimed his maiden podium out of the blue at the Azerbaijan GP in June, set the fourth fastest time and moves ahead of the Red Bulls on the grid. He replaces Verstappen as F1's youngest front-row starter in history
"It was a lot of fun," Stroll told Sky F1. "The car felt good and I just had fun.
"I'd never driven an F1 car in the wet so I just tossed it around. Hopefully we can have a good race from the front row."
After a weekend which began with his relationship with team-mate Sergio Perez under the spotlight, Ocon was the only Force India driver to make Q3 and then outpaced Bottas to claim what becomes third place.
But what happened to Ferrari?
The home team's slide down the top 10 order in Q3 proved the shock of qualifying, particularly as Vettel had challenged Hamilton's pace through the first two stages.
The Ferrari lapped over two seconds off the pace, with Vettel also edged out by Raikkonen on the final runs. The Scuderia are relatively fortune, therefore, that they gain positions at the expense of both Red Bulls.
"I don't know what the problem was. I was surprised by how quick the others went, we couldn't match them," said Vettel.
"There are a couple of things we will look into. Something didn't work.
"We have a good car so we don't need to be afraid. Tomorrow we can make up a lot of ground and you can overtake here."
